After a court appearance Expand If your loved one was recently in court and received a prison sentence, you can contact the court and ask to speak to the cells, and they may be able to tell you which prison your loved one has been sent to. If they are unable to do so, they should be able to tell you which prisons they usually send people to from that court. You can also try contacting the solicitor who may know that information and be able to share it with you.
I think I know where they are - how do I get in touch? Expand If you have an idea of which prison your loved one might be in, you can write a letter to them at that prison. Ensure you put your loved one's name and date of birth on the front of the envelope, followed by the full address of the prison. On the back of the envelope, put your name, address and relationship to them. Within the letter, you can include all of the phone numbers your loved one might need and request their prisoner number, which you will need going forward. If your loved one has been transferred to another prison but you are not sure where you can write a letter to them at their previous prison and the mail should be passed to the new establishment.
After a transfer Expand Prisoners at a new establishment will get a short phone call they can make to a loved one once the registration process has been completed. This is usually within 72 hours but can sometimes take up to 1 week. Prisoners are not allowed mobile phones, so please bear in mind that if they have not written down or memorised their stored phone numbers, they may not be able to get in touch straight away. Once in prison, the prisoner has to pay for telephone calls, so they will not be able to call until they have money in their account. If your loved one has been transferred and you don't know where they are, you can write a letter to the prisoner and send it to their previous prison, and your letter should be passed on to the new establishment.
If the prisoner has been recalled Expand If your loved one has been recalled to prison, you can try contacting their Community Offender Manager (Probation) to see if they can tell you where they were sent.